January Interm in Haiti

In January I traveled to Haiti for my January Interim. The trip was led by Pastor Doug Hill from Abiding Hope Lutheran in Littleton, CO and professor Brad Binau from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio. We spent a week in Littleton learning about Missional Leadership and partnership with Christians in other places. Then we traveled to Haiti for 9 days to meet with Abiding Hope’s ministry partners from the Haitian Timoun Foundation. The HTF serves the children of Haiti in many ways and we visited their ministries in Jacmel and Port-au-Prince. St. Joseph’s Family is an amazing organization that offers group homes for the throw-away children of Haiti, including street children, child slaves (restaveks), and children with special needs. Pazapa (meaning step-by-step) offers schooling for special needs children, and is now one of only a handful of facilities that offers a school for the deaf. Tetkole (meaning heads together) helps reunite children with their families. Fonkoze (meaning shoulders together) is Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution (MFI), helping raise women and their children out of abject poverty.

There has been a lot of coverage in the news about how little has been done in Haiti since the earthquake. During this J Term I learned a great deal about how important it is partner with local people in order to be more effective when attempting to be of assistance and especially when partnering in ministry. While it is true that there is much more work to do in Haiti and a lot of the aid has not reached the people who need it, we saw good work being done by the HTF. Likewise the money given to Lutheran World Relief is funneled through people in Haiti who know how to use it best. There is great hope in the midst of great struggle in Haiti and the Haitian people are beautiful loving people of great strength and love. If you get the opportunity – visit Haiti! It is an incredible place.

A video of my Haiti trip by a fellow student and traveler from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Ohio.